Photo: VesselFinder
By Gavin van Marle
28 September 2026
Gemini Cooperation partners Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd will next month reroute their Asia-Med Loop 1 to transit the Suez Canal and Red Sea in both directions.
Known as AE12 by Maersk and SE1 by Hapag-Lloyd, the string will become the fourth mainline service the Gemini partners have returned to Suez routings, following the Asia-North Europe Loop4 (AE5 and NE4), Asia-Med Loop 2 (AE11 and SE2), and the India-Europe Loop (ME2 and IEX), which were rerouted via Suez this month.
The Asia-Med Loop 1 will reroute to Suez with the departure of Hapag-Lloyd’s 14,500 teu Umm Qarn from Tanjung Pelepas on 17 October, on its westbound headhaul voyage to Europe, its last Asia port call before the Red Sea.
The same vessel will also undertake the service’s first eastbound sailing via Suez, currently scheduled to depart Algeciras on 5 December.
“Our initial transits through Bab al-Mandab have proceeded as planned and provided valuable operational experience for the upcoming SE1 passages,” Hapag-Lloyd told customers.
“Each transit remains subject to a thorough security review and will take place under naval protection, in close coordination with the relevant authorities and security partners.
“This remains a gradual, service-specific approach, and does not constitute a strategic return of our full network to the Red Sea,” the carrier added.
The move will have big implications for the transit times and trade capacity offered to shippers and forwarders. By rerouting via Suez and eschewing the Cape of Good Hope route, the voyage is reduced by a full two weeks, from 98 days to 84, according to data from Xeneta’s eeSea liner database.
It also means the number of vessels required to maintain the service’s weekly frequency drops from 14 to 12, allowing the carriers to redeploy capacity elsewhere in their networks.
The move also means that half of Gemini’s four Asia-Mediterranean services will have returned to Suez, while three Asia-North Europe services continue to sail round the Cape of Good Hope.
Meanwhile, the increasing return of capacity on Asia-Med services to Suez – the Ocean Alliance and MSC have also made partial returns and Drewry noted that canal transits increased from 41 in Week 37 to 48 in Week 38 – has been partially blamed for the decline in Asia-Med spot rates.
And today saw the first move by a carrier to prop up freight rates: CMA CGM announcing a new FAK (freight all kinds) rate of $4,600 per 40ft to the west Mediterranean and $4,900 to the east Mediterranean, to be implemented on 19 October.
That represents a price hike of more than $1,000 per 40ft on Drewry’s World Container Index’s current Shanghai-Genoa rate, which stands at $3,485 per 40ft.